The estrangement, the strong dark shadows and the surreal 23-letter sign—where is De Chirico when you need him? After jumpstarting the "illusionist" surrealism for Dali, Ernst, Tanguy and Magritte with his oneiric pittura metafisica, De Chirico suddenly went batshit crazy at 30, pretending he's a Titian-league classicist. He was very far from it, but believed he got better as he got older.